Guillermo Kane writes from Argentina about Milei’s attacks on workers and how these have been met with mass action, mainly led by the revolutionary and radical left. Guillermo is a parliamentary representative for FITU/Left Workers’ Unity Front and a leading member of the Partido Obrero/Workers Party.
Over nearly 5 months since far right president Javier Milei has taken office in Argentina, workers and the oppressed have been through extreme highs and lows.
The attack on our living conditions began as soon as Milei took power. A 100% devaluation of the peso and the lifting of price controls led to massive inflation: 90% from December 2023 to April 2024, and an annual inflation rate of 300%. Milei’s Mossad and DEA-aligned security minister, Patricia Bullrich, banned street demonstrations, a move which was found by the courts to go against the country’s constitution. This “security protocol” has not stopped daily demonstrations; but it has enabled constant police harassment of demonstrators. Arrests, police beatings and the use of chemical gases – more harmful than tear gas or pepper spray – have been used against the demonstrators.
Argentina’s GNP has contracted by 10%. Milei has ushered in a full-blown recession; even the IMF are claiming his austerity politics are too extreme. Layoffs are widespread both in the public and private sectors. The public sector budget has been frozen, and this, amid massive inflation, threatens the daily functioning of schools and hospitals. Milei is attempting to shut down or privatize dozens of state-run bodies, from the State news agency to the National Argentine Film Board. Rent controls have been lifted, forcing more and more people into homelessness.
Milei’s government, however, is relatively weak. It has little mass support and, apart from the Presidency, few levers on state power. His rise to the presidency was very rapid, with hardly any support from state and local government. His weak parliamentary representation (37 members out of 257 in the Lower House) means he relies on the support of bourgeois mainstream opposition, which is unreliable and threatened by constant crises.
His original attempts at passing a wide range of laws have floundered. The mainstream parties, including Peronism, have already declared themselves in favour of passing labour reforms and austerity bills. But Milei’s “Omnibus Bill” and “Emergency Decree”, which would have effectively installed a regime of personal political power, went too far down the road of dictatorship even for those forces and the ruling class they represent. The result was that Milei was forced to drop his Omnibus Bill after Congress voted it down in February, and the Senate in April.
These parliamentary defeats, however, have led to a closer collaboration between Milei and the Peronists and Radicals. A new, reduced version of his reforms, the “Foundational Bill”, passed in the Lower House last week, and is due to go to the Senate. This Bill is not a “light” reform, as some journalists claim. Rather it allows greater labour flexibility and precarity, the whitewashing of illegal capitalist funds and criminal cartels, more privatizations, including the national airline and train services, and higher taxes for workers while offering tax exemptions for foreign enterprises who exploit Argentina’s resources – natural gas and oil and the mining of copper, gold silver and lithium. The reforms also make pensions inaccessible to women who work at home and to workers whose companies have not made payments to the state; they are also extending the retirement age for women from 60 to 65.
Cristina Kirchner, the ex-president who wants to hold onto her dwindling control of Peronism and the centre-left progressives, has openly defended collaboration with the Milei government. She has spoken of the need to “modernize” labour conditions while criticizing other economic policies. She is trying to bring together an electoral opposition. Meanwhile Milei is able to govern as he wants.
Milei aims to get these reforms through and announce a political pact with provincial and state governors in time for the national holiday of May 25th – a day which, ironically, commemorates the first independent government of Argentina in 1810. Milei is proving himself to be the staunchest supporter of US imperialism and Israel. He hoped this would draw in funds, but this has not happened. Economic activity and tax intake has slumped and economic default looms. The economic driving force of the country, the agricultural capitalists, are withholding exporting of their produce, in a move to force another devaluation, which would have further calamitous economic and social consequences.
Many centre-left and bourgeois “progressives” label Milei as a “fascist” government, partly to give credibility to their preference for a “democratic front”, made up of the bourgeois opposition. But in reality, Milei’s government is a far-right bourgeois government which is held in power by the opposition.
A million on the streets
In contrast to the parliamentary collaborationism of the bourgeois opposition, the revolutionary left has been organizing the struggle against the Milei government since the first days of his rule. In particular, the Partido Obrero (Worker’s Party), a member of the FITU (Left Workers Unity Front) has played a leading role through its influence in the unemployed workers’ organization, in which Polo Obrero is the strongest and most militant force, and through its leaders in the militant unions like SUTNA (tyre manufacturing workers) and AGD-UBA (lecturers in the University Buenos Aires).
Ten days after Milei took power, on December 20th, a march of thousands called by the left defied the ban on rallies, faced the police lines and marched to the Plaza de Mayo in Buenos Aires. Spontaneous protests erupted across neighbourhoods all over the country and marked a first victory against an attempt to impose de facto martial law. On April 11th thousands of unemployed workers blocked the main avenue in Buenos Aires demanding that government provided network of 45,000 soup kitchens be reinstated. This was met with heavy repression and arrests from police, giving way to a battle that lasted over two hours.
Every parliamentary session has been met with a systematic denunciation of Milei’s policies in Parliament by the 5 FITU National Congress members. Huge marches on the streets, made up of left parties and union and social organizations – with the trade union bureaucracy and Peronists notably absent – have clashed regularly with the police. There were also mass demonstrations on International Women’s Day, and on the anniversary of the 1976 military coup, on March 24th, in response to Milei’s shocking defence of the genocide of 30,000 workers by the junta, led by General Videla, during that period.
The biggest popular demonstration thus far has been a march in defence of public Universities on April 23rd which was 800,000 strong in Buenos Aires, and 400,000 across the rest of the country. Milei has not only frozen the budgets of public universities, but openly attacks them as centres of “leftist indoctrination”. He favours private education and wants to introduce a racist criteria of charging students who are migrants from other countries. The march was huge and combative, chanting “Out with Milei!”. The University Deans have tried to stop the mobilisations and negotiate for some minor increases in budget, but without addressing the main problem which are faculty salaries. However, a radicalization of students has been set in motion and spontaneous assemblies and occupations are taking place which will not be contained by the threats from the university authorities.
General strike to defeat Milei
For the Partido Obrero, the key is how to organize a struggle of the working class and oppressed sections of society to bring down the Milei government. The working class, young people, and others in the informal and self-employed sectors, have shown the potential to do this. The main dampener is provided by the mainstream parliamentary opposition, whose policy of negotiating with Milei at the cost of working class interests effectively channels opposition into another election.
The trade union bureaucracy of the CGT and CTA have made limited calls for action. They called two marches, which were massive, on December 27th and May 1st, and a 12 hour strike on January 24th and they are calling for a 24 hour strike for May 9th. They oppose the Government but make no immediate clear demands on the Government and the bosses. They have been mostly passive regarding opposing lay-offs and have accepted a limit on wage contracts which puts a cap on imposing wages which are lower than inflation. They have also backed labour reform in discussion in Congress, in exchange for the repeal of some articles which restricted union funding and organization. Some unions have come out against this and are calling for strikes against the labour reform. Producers of edible oil (a strategic export) had a 24-hour strike against the reform voted by Congress, and the tyre manufacturing workers voted for a 48 hour strike. The confederation of transport unions is divided over the call to strike on May 6th against the reform. The call from the left for a general strike on May 1st to defeat Milei received support from the main industrial unions and Polo Obrero had a huge turnout on that day. FITU and other left organizations held an independent rally and called for further strikes on May 9th and for a general strike to defeat Milei’s reactionary bill when it goes to the Senate.
Only the revolutionary left can offer leadership to the rising anger of the workers and youths of Argentina. We are living through an economic and social catastrophe. Looking to bourgeois nationalism and the union bureaucracy will only bring new frustrations. Their governments have been a huge failure; they have maintained the impoverished and colonial nature of our country and paved the way for the far right. Polo Obrero is calling for a National Assembly of all sectors in struggle, employed and unemployed workers, students, pensioners and artists, and popular assemblies to put forward a united plan of action and an independent leadership that can lead this struggle to victory and defeat Milei.
